Brooks was discovered by Bobby Barren, who invited him to wrestle at the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, and Brian Dixon, who got Brooks some jobs on the holiday camps with established wrestlers such as Steve Adonis. Wrestling as Robbie Brookside, he won his first title after World Heavy-Middleweight Champion "Rollerball" Mark Rocco retired and Brookside won the vacant title in a tournament. The following year, he lost it to Frank "Chic" Cullen.[2]

Brookside then teamed with Doc Dean as The Liverpool Lads, together winning the British Tag Team Championship. Frankie Sloan later teamed with Brookside as The Liverpool Lads in place of Dean. In 1996, Brookside got the chance to wrestle in Germany for the Catch Wrestling Association through his contact with the group, Dave "Fit" Finlay. From then through to the turn of the century, Brookside could be found wrestling across many promotions in Europe, and won many titles during his travels.

Though FWA Champion, Brookside was in fact wrestling under the banner of another promotion, All Star Wrestling. Brookside remained an All Star wrestler throughout his reign, with various FWA wrestlers trying to take back "their" championship. During this time, Brookside vacated his RQW Heavyweight title and leave the promotion. Brookside also took an interest in the future of the business by going on to train future wrestlers, eventually opening his own Leicester-based wrestling school, Wrestleicester, in late 2006.

Brookside appeared on the April 23, 2007 episode of Raw, losing a no disqualification, 3-on-1 handicap match to Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, and Umaga. Brookside was introduced as a man that Shane McMahon had personally seen take down six men by himself in a fight at a local pub. Brookside has also had WWE matches against Snitsky and Maven. Brookside wrestled for Alan Ravenhill's Welsh Wrestling in 2008, where he defeated James Mason in a World of Sport rules match at Maesteg Town Hall.

In February 2008, Brookside won All Star Promotions British Heavyweight Championship for the second time but was forced to vacate the title in May 2009 due to injury.[3] At a WWE house show in Birmingham on 7 November 2011, William Regal announced that Brookside was in the crowd and credited him with his success as well as that of Sheamus and Wade Barrett.

In 2013, Brookside, who had already been working as a talent scout for WWE, began working as a coach in WWE's developmental system, NXT.[4][5] Brookside made an appearance on the February 16, 2015 episode of Raw, separating a brawl between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns.